Houston couple donates major art collection to UT

Houstonians Charles and Judy Tate, shown at the 2014 Bayou Bend Garden Party, have donated their collection of about 120 Latin American artworks to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin. About 10 percent of their $10 million gift will add to an endowment for the museum's Latin American curatorship. less

Houstonians Charles and Judy Tate, shown at the 2014 Bayou Bend Garden Party, have donated their collection of about 120 Latin American artworks to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin. ... more

Photo: Jenny Antill

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Judy and Charles Tate at the 50th Blanton Museum Anniversary Gala in 2013. Both graduated from the University of Texas-Austin and have supported its museum and other academic programs for years.

Judy and Charles Tate at the 50th Blanton Museum Anniversary Gala in 2013. Both graduated from the University of Texas-Austin and have supported its museum and other academic programs for years.

Photo: Caitlin Ryan

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Carlos Merida's 1953 glass mosaic "Abstract" is among 120 works by Latin American artists promised to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas by Houston collectors and UT alums﻿ Charles and Judy Tate. less

Carlos Merida's 1953 glass mosaic "Abstract" is among 120 works by Latin American artists promised to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas by Houston collectors and UT alums﻿ Charles and Judy ... more

Photo: Artists Rights Society

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Rufino Tamayo's 1957 oil painting "The Astronomer" is among the works promised by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin.

Rufino Tamayo's 1957 oil painting "The Astronomer" is among the works promised by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin.

Photo: Art@Tomayo Heirs/Mexico

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Antonio Llorens' 1954 "Untitled" enamel on wood painting is among 120 works promised by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin.

Antonio Llorens' 1954 "Untitled" enamel on wood painting is among 120 works promised by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin.

Photo: Courtesy Blanton Museum Of Art

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Frida Kahlo's graphite drawing "Carma II [Karma II] will become part of the Latin American collection at the University of Texas-Austin's Blanton Museum of Art.

Frida Kahlo's graphite drawing "Carma II [Karma II] will become part of the Latin American collection at the University of Texas-Austin's Blanton Museum of Art.

Photo: Banco De Mexico

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Fernando Botero's bronze "Reclining Venus" is among works promised to the Blanton Museum of Art by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate.

Fernando Botero's bronze "Reclining Venus" is among works promised to the Blanton Museum of Art by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate.

Photo: Courtesy Of The Artist

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An Untitled 1948 ink on paper by the Cuban master Wilfredo Lam is among works promised to the Blanton Museum of Art by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate.

An Untitled 1948 ink on paper by the Cuban master Wilfredo Lam is among works promised to the Blanton Museum of Art by Houston collectors Charles and Judy Tate.

Photo: Artists Rights Society

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Carlos Merida's 1953 glass mosaic "Abstract" is among 120 works by Latin American artists promised to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas by Houston collectors and UT alums﻿ Charles and Judy Tate. less

Carlos Merida's 1953 glass mosaic "Abstract" is among 120 works by Latin American artists promised to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas by Houston collectors and UT alums﻿ Charles and Judy ... more

Photo: Caitlin Ryan

Houston couple donates major art collection to UT

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Although museums avoid the word "rivalry" because they often collaborate on exhibitions and loan treasured objects to each other, the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas-Austin has received what can only be seen in the museum world as a windfall in the gift of 120 modern and contemporary Latin American artworks from Houstonians Charles and Judy Tate.

The Tates' donation, which totals $10 million, includes not only their private collection but more than $1 million to an endowment that supports a Latin American curatorship.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston is home to a world-renowned collection of 1,300 Latin American artworks, including 650 paintings and sculptures acquired over the past 13 years as Latin American art has soared in value and importance. While the museum's resources are orders of magnitude greater and it owns many large and significant pieces, by the numbers its collection is considerably smaller than the Blanton's. Charles Tate said the couple always intended to give their collection to the art museum of their alma mater.

"It's transformative in a very significant way," Blanton director Simone Wicha said. While the artworks are the most significant single donation to the Blanton's Latin American collection since the department was established, the endowment gift speaks to the institution's core work.

"You can have a great collection, but without the talent to manage it you can't put it to work," said Wicha, calling the Tates "visionary partners."

"Latin art is not terribly well understood, and one of the Blanton's greatest contributions has been educating people," said Tate, the chairman and founder of the private equity firm Capital Royalty, L.P., which invests in the health care industry.

'A new class of collectors'

The Blanton was one of the first U.S. museums to recognize Latin American art. Its holdings in that area have grown to more than 2,200 works since Texas collectors John and Barbara Duncan donated 54 paintings in 1971.

A decade ago, some of the artists in the Tates' collection weren't familiar even to many art experts. But interest in Latin American art has grown significantly.

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MFAH curator Mari Carmen Ramirez, one of the pioneers in the field, started her career in 1988 at the Blanton, where she was the first U.S. museum curator specializing in Latin American art. When she was hired by the late Peter Marzio, the Houston museum had no Latin American paintings or sculptures.

"Throughout the '80s, the market was pretty much restricted to collectors from Mexico who wanted Mexican art, collectors from Argentina who wanted Argentinean art, and so on," Ramirez said. "Then over the past 15 years, things began to change all over the world. There was a lot more speculation in art in general, and a new class of collectors formed."

Unlike more highly publicized Chinese art, which created a financial bubble with prices soaring overnight into the millions for works by unproven artists, the Latin American market's growth was slow, steady and fueled by the re-discovery of early 20th-century painters and sculptors who were also active in Europe.

The market has really taken off since major museums entered the field, Ramirez said. Her Houston department was one of the first, along with London's Tate Modern. It is still one of the most comprehensive, with an in-house institute that publishes research and established a massive online archive used by scholars around the world.

"It was not just a nominal gesture," Ramirez said. "It changed the dynamics of the field, because it signaled to other museums that Latin American art was worth collecting."

Major museums in New York and Paris have scrambled to catch up. New York's Museum of Modern Art has owned the most Latin American artworks for years but only appointed its first curator in the field in 2006. The Metropolitan Museum of Art hired its first just this year.

The value of Latin American art has risen steadily, too. When Houston's museum bought its first work by the Venezuelan kinetic sculptor Gego, her works sold for $20,000 to $30,000. Today they're 10 times that. Works by still-living artists have kept pace: Pieces created by Carlos Cruz-Diez in the 1950s and '60s that sold for $50,000 a decade ago now sell for over $1 million.

The Tates bought their first Latin American artworks more than 15 years ago to decorate a Spanish-style home they planned to build in Los Angeles. When they came to Houston instead in 1991, they re-engaged with the university. Tate earned his undergraduate business degree at the University of Texas in 1968; Judy Tate graduated from the college of education in 1973.

Developing a friendship with Ramirez's successor at the Blanton, Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, they began collecting with the school's museum in mind. They liked the perspective the Blanton offered, showing Latin American artists alongside their American and European counterparts.

"Their displays were inclusive; that was a major shift in thinking about what Latin American art is," Tate said.

The Tates also support MFAH, but felt the Blanton was a better fit for this gift.

"As a teaching institution, the Blanton has other missions. It relies on alumni for support," Tate said.

A decade ago Austin had one of only two graduate programs in Latin American art. Now more than a dozen universities offer advanced degrees.

The Blanton's new curator of Latin American art, Beverly Adams, arrived in January. She earned her undergraduate, master's and doctorate at UT, finishing in 2000. She assisted Ramirez during five of those years.

'Not a piece I don't relate to'

Working at the Blanton as a student changed her life, Adams said.

"It's one thing to take an art history class, but when it's backed up with objects, that adds a whole other dimension to the experience," Adams said.

One of her first projects is "La línea continua," a show of about 70 works from the Tates' collection that goes on view Sept. 20 to Feb. 15.

After that, the works will return to the Tates. They display the collection throughout their River Oaks home and Charles Tate's downtown office.

"There's not a piece I don't relate to," he said. He's especially fond of three paintings he keeps near his desk: Rufino Tamayo's whimsical "The Astronomer," Luis Tomasello's eye-fooling "Chromoplastic Atmosphere No. 210" and Julio Alpuy's "The Earth." "My office looks very nude right now," he said.